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Year: 2017

Lecturers divided on the NSS boycott

Written by Rosa Simonet on . Posted in News.

The National Student Survey (NSS) is being used as part of the government ranking system, the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), introduced this year. In response, the survey, now widely associated with the rise of tuition fees, has been met with nationwide boycotts and criticism.

The boycotts and campaigns, coordinated by the NUS, have encouraged students to ‘opt-out’ of the survey. According to the Union, if enough students boycott, the survey will become invaluable and the TEF unworkable.

The Students’ Union at the University of Manchester have been using their own #DontFillItIn initiative in support of the boycott. Their campaign includes a video, lecture shoutouts, banners and a blog created by Emma Atkins, Education officer. The blog not only addresses the questions and concerns about the boycott but also advertises the alternative Manchester Student Survey.

This week, concerns the University of Manchester have been pressuring various departments to oppose the boycott have been raised.

When asked, departments across the University of Manchester provided differing opinions on the NSS.
Many, including Arthur Garforth, Head of Teaching within Chemical Engineering, and Julie-Marie Strange, Head of History, have not taken clear positions on the survey but have encouraged students to make informed decisions.

However, Strange adds, unlike previous years, she has not “offered any incentives (e.g. iPad draw) to fill it”. Garforth, on the other hand, states “the dilemma for me is that we welcome all sources of feedback and act accordingly to develop future School and T&L Action Plans, so I will always be disappointed if NSS feedback is impacted on”.

In response to the original concerns, Richard Winpenny, Head of Chemistry, believed departments had not been pressured by the university but argued “the NSS is very important as it provides useful information to sixth-form students when they chose their university courses. As fees rise, it is ever more important students are as well informed as possible when they make choices”.

A spokesman from the university claimed  “the National Student Survey is an important way for the University to learn what it needs to do to ensure that Manchester students have the best possible experience while studying with us.  As a result, we encourage all eligible students to complete the survey”.

In strong support of the boycott, however, the English department, represented by Noelle Gallagher, have stated they “believe that the NSS does not provide an accurate or reliable means of measuring the quality of university education, and we object to the use of NSS scores as a means of evaluating teaching and assessing student fees”.

The range of responses has been said to indicate a lack of trust in the TEF amongst staff, who still wish to have some form of feedback structure still in place. Emma Atkins states, a recent unpublished survey, conducted at the University of Manchester, revealed an “unsatisfied picture” of staff with the TEF.

Instagram: The pros and cons

Written by Georgia Welch on . Posted in Arts.

In 2017 you would be hard-pressed to find someone who does not use, or at least is not aware of, Instagram.

The much-loved photo-sharing app was first launched in 2010 and later bought by Facebook in 2012. Since its inception, approximately 20 billion photos have been uploaded, with 90 per cent of users falling into an age bracket of under 35 years old.

With these figures in mind, it is clear that Instagram  has an enormous presence in the social media sphere of young people, so unsurprisingly it has garnered endless amounts of praise and criticism alike in its seven year existence.

Some have argued that Instagram detracts from the artistry of photography as a craft, to some extent, suggesting that the idea that anyone can easily take and showcase their own photos contributes to mediocrity in the field and also reduces the impact of truly great photography.

Naturally, of course, this calls into question what actually constitutes ‘good’ photography, seeing as though the art form is so inherently subjective and relies heavily on knowledge of both the photographer intention and the viewer’s perception, as well as the technical aspects of successful photography which tend to be learned or acquired in the study of photography as a medium.

Whilst Instagram may promote the art photography as  accessible for any young mobile phone user, why is this necessarily a bad thing? In the increasingly visual and technology-based culture we inhabit, the documentation and communication of one’s own life and interests through the most visual of mediums is something we ought to embrace, particularly if it allows users to develop their own creativity.

In addition, it is difficult to discuss Instagram without mentioning the concept of the ‘selfie’, which the app played an instrumental role in popularising.

Again, young people are criticised for the alleged vanity of celebrating one’s own appearance, but in a world where self-love and acceptance is largely discouraged and even shamed, surely Instagram’s propulsion of young people’s comfort in their own skin and exposure to a diverse range of people and body types, this is something that should be encouraged.

As one of the fastest growing social networks of the 2010s, Instagram ultimately has a positive effect on the art of photography, so long may it continue.

University of Manchester and SU “create a hostile environment for free speech”

Written by Tom Patterson on . Posted in News.

Online magazine Spiked has published an analysis of censorship across 116 institutions which ranked the University of Manchester’s Students’ Union (SU) as red in their traffic-light system and the University itself as amber. They are suggesting that the University of Manchester and SU “collectively create a hostile environment for free speech”.

Spiked points to the University of Manchester’s verbal harassment policy, the SU stopping a Charlie Hebdo front cover from being displayed during the 2015 Refreshers’ Fair, and the banning of Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking in 2015 as evidence for their ranking.

It was the SU’s Free Speech and Secular Society (FSS) that originally invited the speakers, and Edgar from FSS released the following statement to The Mancunion: “The University of Manchester has been supportive of free speech, in stark contrast to the Students’ Union.

“The Students’ Union has actively censored events. Some minor clarifications to the Safe Space policy have been passed last year, so we hope that the arbitrary, censorious attitude of the Students’ Union is a thing of the past.”

The Safe Space policy states that “freedom of speech is important, yet intention to incite hatred is never acceptable”. The SU detailed the reasoning behind banning the speakers in a statement released in 2015 which can be viewed on their website.

The SU’s Diversity Officer, Ilyas Nagdee, told The Mancunion: “The visiting speaker process is the same for all societies. They submit a speaker request, the Union and University have a system to look through all speaker requests to ensure they comply with all regulations”. He went on to highlight the SU’s opposition to policies which it sees as limiting to free speech such as the government’s Prevent Agenda. Ilyas said this has led to some Muslim students “not picking certain modules or feeling wary of engaging in political conversations in seminars”.

But not everyone is taking Spiked’s analysis seriously. WONKHE, the higher education blogging site, said in their Monday Morning HE Briefing:“The politically-charged magazine surveys universities, examining the policies and actions of universities and students’ unions, including anecdotes and press coverage, to rank them with a red, amber or green traffic-light award.

“The methodology may well be beyond proper scrutiny, but the rankings do have an ability to make a splash in sections of the press that are hungry to paint life on British campuses as chilling outposts of political correctness. Heaven forbid.”

Jeanette Winterson, Professor of Creative Writing at University of Manchester, talked to The Mancunion about the differences between private and public platforms.

“It’s very different if you’re behind closed doors thrashing something out amongst equals… [as opposed to] where there’s any hierarchical situation… you’ve got to be much more careful, because the person with the power has to be both better mannered and restrained and not always say the things that are in his or her mind.”

But with regards to guest speakers she believes that everyone should be allowed have a platform.

“If they’re saying it in private let them say it in public, I’d rather the thing had some good fresh air round it than it was festering away in some ugly corner. So this has to be allowed to happen but it also has to be countered and the business of allowing someone to speak is not the same as agreeing with them or welcoming them or not challenging them.”

“None of us is free from prejudice or cliché or assumption…[but] when we hear people who take an extreme position, it can often make us think how much we hate that position anyway and then we work harder to stamp it out in ourselves.”

She went on to say that it can also motivate people to think, “I want to stand out against that, I’m not just going to be a passive person”, and finished by saying: “Let’s hear what people have to say in the wider arena but in the private sphere of how we manage our lives in the workplace particularly, let’s be very careful about how we talk to one another because hierarchies of gender and of power are real. And to me that’s what you’ve got to watch every day, how you talk to somebody does matter.”

A spokesperson from the University of Manchester stated:”We reject the claims made about the University in this ranking.

“The University of Manchester is fundamentally committed to freedom of speech, and we have a Code of Practice to protect and uphold this and to ensure speakers act within the law. We work closely with students, staff and the Students’ Union to support hundreds of events each year and give as many people as possible the opportunity to debate a wide variety of topics safely and constructively.”

A round up of Manchester’s Fossip

Written by Miriam Mizzi on . Posted in News.

Sometimes the news is full of foodie related gossip, and recently it has been just so. Therefore, we have decided it is about time to round it up and fill you in. Here is what has been going on in Manchester’s ever-thriving food scene.

1.       The lip smacking street food, trendy music, and late-night bars that B.Eat Street brought to Manchester’s Great Northern Warehouse has been closed — after just seven months, the space will now be used as a private space for businesses to hire, and will no longer be open for large public events. Why oh why?!

2.       Parklife and Warehouse Project boss Sacha has invested in Manchester’s food scene by pledging himself to Eat New York — the butter-dunked bagel company can already be spotted in places like the pop-up events at SCRANcoats, but now, I’m sure, we can be expecting to see a lot more of their luxurious fillings, from hot salt beef to crab claw, all over Manchester — woohoo!

3.       Poutine pop-up coming to Didsbury — Poutine, that modern street food feast, constructed from chips, cheese, and gravy is set to turn up in West Didsbury. Head to Mary and Archie’s on the 26th of February, where Blue Caribou Canteen will be serving up some of this delightful new food trend.  See you there.

4.       Greggs have started a delivery service — Two city centre stores have started delivering our Gregg’s favourites such as the steak bake, the cheese and bean melt, and those greasy greasy pizza slices.  Put your hands up if you could easily reach that £20 minimum order.

5.       Fear not, all those belly-rumbling January deals may be over, but there are still some savings to be made. Head to The Pen and Pencil in the Northern Quarter where food is 50% off on Mondays. Or, what about Salvi’s two-course Italian lunch for £12.95 every day. I know, the weather’s too horrible, well, stay in and get 20% off takeaways from East Z East this month.

6.       3 AA Rosette chef comes to Koffee Pot — Ernest Van Zyl is coming to this Northern Quarter venue for one night only (Monday the 27th of February). Its £37 for four courses, this being a small scratch on what you normally pay for this chef’s food, so snap up a ticket and wander down to Koffee Pot.

Experiencing China at Tsinghua University

Written by Jack Greeney on . Posted in Lifestyle.

Last summer I was fortunate enough to travel to Beijing for a scholarship at China’s highest-ranked university. It was fantastic to be accepted onto the Experiencing China summer programme at Tsinghua University, expenses paid. This opportunity was offered by my school (Arts, Languages and Cultures) here at the University of Manchester — I first saw about it in a general email and applied on a whim. When success followed I couldn’t believe my luck! Exams ended and I grew increasingly excited.

Shirt and lanyard: it’s official – Photo: Jack Greeney

Then, disaster almost struck. Floods closed Visa Services for weeks: application pending, I feared the worst. Perhaps I should have anticipated July flooding, this being Manchester. Luckily I collected my passport the morning of departure; three flights later, I arrived in China. Exhausted, rattled by time zone and temperate, I found my hostel and crashed. Waking at night, I caught the subway to the Forbidden Palace gateway, lit up in the darkness. China was right in front of me, and it was stunning.

Gateway of the Forbidden City – Photo: Jack Greeney

The next morning I hauled my suitcase through the subways to the university. The campus was huge, surely larger than my hometown. Its beauty and scale left me awed and lost. Eventually I checked into my halls bedroom and unpacked. The first few days were extremely social, packed with fellow coursemates to meet. A wonderful atmosphere flourished, welcoming and talkative: everyone made lasting friendships with exceptional quickness and ease.

Basketball in the warm evenings – Photo: Jack Greeney

During the week, morning sessions featured lectures from an array of world-class keynote speakers presenting a variety of topics, with a focus on China: environment, education, history, culture, economy, governance and relations. After lunches, we went out into the city in groups with a guide. Three friends and I chose to investigate galleries. This was an excellent decision, enabling us to visit world-class art areas such as the 798 Zone and Today Art Gallery.

Around and about the galleries – Photo: Jack Greeney

Over the course, we drew up coherent plans on how to improve the areas. On the final day we presented our ideas in speeches to hundreds, and later with huge posters in an expo hall. In addition, we were instructed to write a poem (which I presented, only narrowly surviving near-fatal stage-fright) and create a human structure (which flopped, but at least I wasn’t in charge). Afterwards there was a wonderful gala dinner and ball for everyone, which was hugely enjoyed: and so too its wine.

Group Photo at the Gala – Photo: Jack Greeney

Learning was only half the experience, however. Plenty of activities were set up, like basketball, language learning, and Tai-chi. Many evenings we ventured out to see famous landmarks of Beijing and the traditional hutong; others we would stuff ourselves full of delicious Chinese food and picnic out on the athletics field all night in the warmth. During weekends, the university provided incredible bucket-list-defeating trips: the Great Wall of China, Olympic Stadium, Temple of Heaven and extraordinary traditional performances at Lao She Tea House amongst them.

The Great Wall of China – Photo: Jack Greeney

The morning after the final day, my best friends and I woke up far too early in the morning (a wincing 4am start) to go and see the sunrise flag-raising at Tiananmen Square. It was incredible to end my stay in Beijing where it had begun, outside the Forbidden City gateway, surrounded by new friends. In this instance, the words ‘life-changing’ are no cliché. Memories from this time I shall permanently cherish and yearn for once again. Our group is set to reunite this summer.

Who knew Mao’s so photogenic? – Photo: Jack Greeney

I highly recommend keeping an eye on your university inbox for anything that might crop up. As it was for me, it might well be fruitful. China was certainly experienced — and China was incredible.

PSG 4-0 Barcelona: Analysis

Written by Dane Massey on . Posted in Sport.

When Bayern Munich inflicted a 4-0 defeat upon Barcelona in the 2013 UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg, it marked the Catalans heaviest defeat in a Champions League match. Almost four years on, Paris Saint-Germain matched Bayern’s feat as they thumped Luis Enrique’s side by the same score line at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday the 14th of February 2017.

After early pressure from PSG, the ball fell to Edinson Cavani’s feet in the box but he failed to convert. The home side maintained their fast start to the game, and they were rewarded as Angel di Maria curled a delightful free-kick past Marc-André Ter Stegen to put PSG 1-0 ahead.

Barcelona began to see more of the ball, but Andre Gomes fired wide after he went one-on-one with Kevin Trapp. It would soon prove costly as Julian Draxler doubled the hosts lead shortly afterwards.

Enrique’s men would have been glad to see the break, but his half-time team talk proved to have no impact as Barcelona started the second half as slow as they did the first.

Ten minutes into the half, they were made to pay once again as Di Maria, the Spanish side’s tormenter-in-chief, put PSG 3-0 up before being substituted moments later for Brazilian Lucas Moura. The Barcelona boss made a change of his own, but Lucas’ fellow Brazilian Rafinha Alcantara had little influence on the game.

PSG’s influence, however, continued to grow, and the Blaugrana’s miserable night continued when Cavani rifled a first time shot into the net, making it 4-0 on the night.

It was a night full of bad luck for Barcelona, and Samuel Umtiti’s headed effort in the latter stages of the game summed this up as the French central defender hit the post. The defeat was humiliating for Barcelona and Enrique, and it could represent more than just a loss for the latter.

Just as Tito Vilanova left his post as Barcelona manager at the end of the 2012/13 season shortly after a 7-0 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich, Enrique could do the same this summer or perhaps sooner.

Of course, there is a second leg to play at the Camp Nou in Spain, and if any team can turn around a 4-0 deficit, it is Barcelona. For this to happen, though, they must produce their best performance of the season and reach the standards they have set over the last two seasons – standards they have fallen short of so far this campaign.

The result shocked the football world, but it should come as no shock to Enrique following the way he set up his team, and his inability to change.

Barcelona are one of the best teams ever to have graced the football pitch, but despite their quality, they can’t beat every team playing an open, expansive style of play. PSG deserve credit, they played magnificent, but the opposition played into their hands and offered them little respect.

Barcelona afforded Di Maria and Draxler far too much space, the pair could drift inside as they pleased and influenced proceedings in their own way. The attacking duo were the stars of the show; they gave Barcelona’s defenders nightmares.

PSG’s midfield trio also played at the top of their game both individually and collectively. Frenchmen Adrien Rabiot and Blaise Matuidi, along with Italian maestro Marco Verratti crushed the Barcelona midfield, who were nowhere to be seen.

The same can be said for Barcelona in an attacking sense, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez were anonymous, while Neymar, despite glimpses of promising play was shrewdly snuffed out by PSG’s incredible defensive teamwork and organisation.

These are traditional traits of Barcelona, and just under two years ago they displayed this against the same opponent, when they beat PSG 3-1 away from home in the Champions League quarter-finals on their way to winning the prize in 2015. In this match, eight of Barcleona’s starting XI on the same night also started this game.

For Barcelona, not a lot has changed in two years, but buoyed by their recent record against the Catalans, Unai Emery’s PSG would have been keen to set the record straight. Enrique, however, failed to see this.

Barcelona’s defensive struggles were clear, and they were reminiscent of Chelsea’s defensive frailties earlier on in the season. Antonio Conte, though, remained pragmatic and found the solution – switching to 3-4-3 which deployed an extra man at the back and allowed the wide players to get closer to the central striker.

On this night, it was evident that Messi and Neymar were playing too far away from Suarez, and the full-backs were pinned in by Di Maria and Draxler. A 3-4-3 system would have suited Barcelona better against PSG, a formation they have played already this season.

If Enrique took a leaf out of Conte’s book, it would have represented an act of pragmatism. In certain games, Barcelona need to display this if they are to eliminate their defensive weaknesses against sides with an abundance of attacking talent.

It is likely, however, that this will not be Enrique’s job – there is a strong possibility that he will be replaced at the end of the season as a new era dawns at FC Barcelona.

US universities to sue Donald Trump over travel ban

Written by Araddhna Patel on . Posted in News.

In support of an existing lawsuit, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are just three of 17 Ivy League universities in the United States that have filed papers in Brooklyn federal court challenging Donald Trump’s travel ban.

President Trump signed an Executive Order in January that blocked the entry of refugees and citizens of several Muslim-majority nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — from entering the US.

In a press release issued jointly by the universities, they stated: “By prohibiting persons from freely travelling to and from this country, the Executive Order divides students and their families, impairs the ability of American universities to draw the finest international talent, and inhibits the free exchange of ideas.”

They added that the ban has “serious and chilling implications.”

The government refuted the lawsuit since no students are in custody, but according to The Independent, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously supported the blocking of this ban after upholding a lower court’s ruling. The President’s administration has stated they will fight this decision.

However, the universities have said the travel ban has already had “damaging effects” that “have already been widely felt by American universities,” adding that there is potential for the Executive Order to continue to do.

Another university amongst the 17 is Johns Hopkins in Maryland. The President of the school said that the ban “takes our country down the ominous path of erecting barriers not on the basis of a demonstrated security threat but on the basis of religion.”

He added: “The order stands in unambiguous opposition to our country’s long-cherished values and ideals.”

Scholars worldwide have called for a boycott of conferences within the US in response to the order. The court document claims that more than 42,000 academics from around the world have also signed an online petition expressing their opposition of this Executive Order.

According to the petition, there were over one million international students welcomed by US universities in the last academic year.

For instance, Yale’s international faculty makes up around 10 per cent of students, whilst 16 per cent of Columbia University’s undergraduate students are international.

The limits to minimalism

Written by Tristan Parsons on . Posted in Opinion.

Minimalism, in the sense of restricting material consumption, has become quite a trend over the last few years. Like many lifestyle movements, it has deep roots in passionate YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, where its proponents can effectively motivate its imagery: that crystal clear photo of a clear desk, or the cleansing idea and action of tidying one’s space.

Beyond this sphere, we can see minimalism variety of other forms: modern music, architecture, and art often channel the basic notion that less is more. One particularly interesting field in which minimalism features heavily is design.

This is best exemplified by Apple’s imagery. For years (though the iPad arguably reversed this trend for a moment, before going the same way) the company held obsession over making their products smaller, whilst at the same time doing more. They continued in the minimalist spirit through their adverts: a simple, upbeat backing track, a white background, a clean thumb, and the product in the middle. And it sold.

The technology sector’s adoption of minimalism was a timely strategy, given the rise of ‘individualist environmentalism’ (turning off the lights, doing the recycling etc.) in the preceding decades. The IT sector managed to sell their energy-guzzling products (partially) on the premise that they did many things with little space.

Here, today’s minimalism comes to a dilemma. It risks failing to adequately take account for the invisible and displaced ‘consumption’ in our lives. The IT sector, again, is the best example of this. Whilst Apple proudly garnishes a white background with their sleek products, the internet that so many of its products run on, though we often ignore the physical infrastructure necessary to its running, consumes 10 per cent of the world’s electricity.

Instead, minimalism picks on easier, though often worthwhile, targets. The clutter that fills living rooms, garages, and bedrooms ought to go. So, too, should the car. Downsize the home, if possible. These are all highly visible forms of consumption. The clutter adds frustration to living in one’s house; the car’s coughing exhaust pipe is visible below the plastic sheen; and housing was the centre of the last financial crash.

These visibilities do not account for the entirety of consumption involved in owning such items. There are rare earth metal components in a phone that the user will never see and likely never get replaced; yet, the mining for such metals is a major driver for the Chinese corporate ‘occupation’ of Mongolia.

I watched one of The Minimalists’ TED talks (though, of course, they do not represent the entire movement) in which they speak highly of the initial transition to minimalism. The strategy recommended is a day-by-day questioning the sentimentality and personal need for each individual item, so that one item is thrown away per day for one month.

But, before this, one must decide to become a minimalist. This moment is potentially a moment of radical politics: a fury with the materialist, modern world, and then relief from its cultures. At such a juncture, one’s perception of possessions (or commodities) are altered. In contrast to the (usually, though not always) calculated action of purchase and product accumulation for specific needs, this radicalism might scream, I don’t need ANY of this stuff.

The items become just that: stuff. Last year, IKEA said that we had “reached peak stuff” — though that claim now appears dubious. The radical within us whines about an apparently universal consumerism, seeks to leave a culture that allegedly pressures us to buy buy buy in every movement, and imagines sped-up film of shoppers scurrying amongst the glass. The patron saints of this feeling are those who go off the grid, who refuse to play the game; they run to the hills — perhaps in angry disgust, perhaps in calm solitude.

Minimalism takes issue with culture and our impact on our planet. We can see these awkward generalisations in popular environmentalism. Bernie Sanders, in his running to be the Democratic candidate in last year’s election, and then kneeling alongside Hillary Clinton on her Presidential campaign, often preached (and continues to preach) that, with regards to climate change, “the debate is over”.

Climate change cannot merely be “accepted”. Sanders, and others, too often present climate change as a singular, unquestionable phenomenon. But is not a singular thing. The expected impacts resulting from the warming of our planet (though itself not universally equal) are intensely varied. The UK will likely suffer from more damaging winter storms, areas of the USA are set to benefit from increased crop yields, and some animal species in the Amazon will become extinct. Though, Sanders’ forcefulness is understandable given that 16 per cent of Americans are still climate change deniers.

Minimalism makes many good points, it bolsters a certain political platform, and is headed in roughly the right direction. But, its radical, generalising potential threatens widespread, ‘common man’ progress towards social and environmental goals. Though it comes at an effort, we ought to recognise the individuality of different actions and their impacts. We need a politics that sees the hills but doesn’t run for them; that knows the severity of our ecological predicament but doesn’t ridicule those who do not ‘accept’ climate change; but, rather, seeks to work with reason in the face of such challenges.

How the Democrats normalised mass deportation

Written by Jack Greeney on . Posted in Opinion.

Right away, he was outspoken. Right from his very first speech: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime”, Donald Trump said of Mexican immigrants, announcing his presidential candidacy. “They’re rapists.” 16th June 2015 might have been the genesis of a movement that cumulated at the election of President Trump. It was not, however, the genesis of American support for mass deportation. For that attitude had already been building on both sides of the fence for decades.

In 1996, the Clinton administration established a new series of laws which profoundly affected the enforcement of immigration controls. The year following the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act was presented as a measure to prevent future attacks. This law also paved the way for unbridled rights abuses against immigrants and refugees. Later that year, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act also modified US immigration laws enormously. This granted the government greater authority to detain and deport by eliminating key defences immigrants could use.

These laws established a dangerous precedent: one of broader grounds for deportation and harsher penalties for illegal entry, thus increasing powers for both the federal government and local law enforcement agencies. A 2016 report from the Human Rights Watch concludes that these “terrible” laws “rip apart” families and “fast-track deportation”, before adequate consideration from US authorities can take place. If only the acts were as far-sighted as they were lengthy in name.

Many of these relentless revisions authorised under Clinton were not fully deployed until the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, which gave President Bush a strong mandate to do so. Under Bush, the sharp increase in rate started by Clinton continued to grow. Making full use of the 1996 enactments, Bush became the first President to deport one million people. Then two million. Not only were the raw figures shocking; so too were the methods.

Headline-grabbing workplace raids were staged: high-profile, coordinated operations using advanced technology and SWAT team helicopters. Unlike the strategy of penalising employers who hired undocumented immigrants, these physical raids were highly likely to lead to criminal charges and deportation for the undocumented individuals themselves. Bordering the realms of propaganda when covered in the news, this sensational style of hands-on busts increased general American inclination towards deportation.

In the run-up to the 2008 election, the Democratic Party shifted in this same direction, too. Democrats opposed Republican extremities with moderation in an attempt to woo a fruitful centre ground. By the time their victory was claimed, the movement towards mass deportation was already well and truly in motion. President Obama deported more people from the US than any other president. From inauguration to departure he expelled more than 2.5 million people from the country’s borders. Instead of reversing, Obama accelerated, increasing the immigration control enforcement budget by 300 percent.

It was claimed by this administration that most of those deportees were people with scorning criminal records: felons, threats to America. However, a 2014 study showed different. It revealed that two thirds of deportation cases involved people who had only committed minor infractions, such as traffic violations, or no offence at all. In fact, only 20 per cent of the total deported had been convicted of offences which could be described as “serious”. This use of rhetoric, characterising all deportees as dangerous criminals contrary to fact, is what truly sought to normalise this obscene human expulsion.

There is no question that President Trump’s ideas and policies towards immigrants are severe, even compared to past records. Trump and the Republicans clearly intend to get rid of as many of the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants as they possibly can. However, those who fear a Trump presidency may normalise his extreme views often do not see that the normalisation of mass deportation predates Trump entirely.

It is a peculiar viewpoint that America was “already great” before Trump — an implication put forward by Hillary Clinton. Perhaps it is not a viewpoint afforded to the vast majority of immigrants, undocumented or otherwise, living in the US today. As the chosen successor to record-setter Obama, Trump has inherited the most sophisticated human expulsion machine in human history: legally robust and well-resourced. On this foundation he has simply built one level upwards. For two decades now, mass deportations have been as American as the blues.

From the turn of the 20th century until 1996, the US had removed 2.1 million people from the country. The number of people removed in the two decades since Clinton’s enactments was more than double this. These “third way” positions have provided Republicans a platform to build on: founding, perpetuating and exacerbating. Rather than one-sided right-wing reconciliation, perhaps what is instead desperately required is an offer of genuine opposition; people who will truly seek to dismantle these systems in motion and not just talk about them as if the are not in motion at all.

Much like (allegedly) many of Trump’s former employees, the true builders of Trump’s deportation policies seem to be left thankless. Steps must be retraced, and when power is resumed by Democrats, a repeat of these mistakes must not be allowed. For it is not only the issue of mass deportation that has become normalised under Democratic watch. So, too, have war by executive order, kill lists, and corporate-sponsored legislation. President Trump’s plans may be severe, but they are by no means anything new.

A Dream to a Nightmare: What’s happened to Leicester City?

Written by George Green on . Posted in Sport.

In spite of last year’s heroics, it’s been a season to forget for Leicester City, with them now facing the relegation battle in the Premier League. We take a look at some of the reasons why this unexpected decline has occurred.

In May 2016 Leicester defied all odds and were crowned champions of English football for the first time in their history. They marked their elevation above all English giants like Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, proving that money is not always the key to success. They showed consistent ruthlessness in the way they played throughout the season.

However, this season, it has been a very different story. Leicester currently sit in 17th position, one point off the relegation zone and there’s been a complete dissatisfaction in the way they’ve been performing. There appeared to be, at the beginning of last season, such a buzz around the football club — but this has been almost non-existent this campaign.

It was always going to be a difficult task to retain the Premier League title, most much more experienced top flight Clubs have struggled in the past also. Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri had admitted that it would in fact be “impossible” for Leicester to retain it. The expectation from many was that they would finish around mid-table this year — instead they are fighting the relegation battle in February. Lots of fans and pundits put this down to the loss of a key player.

N’Golo Kanté was sold to Chelsea in the 2016 summer transfer window for around £32 million. He was undoubtedly a vital player for Leicester last season, topping the charts for the amount of interceptions and he even paved his way into the PFA team of the season. He was the one player who really made the team tick. A fair few pundits put Leicester’s decline on his shoulders, considering he’s done the same thing at Chelsea, and they currently sit eight points clear at the top.

However, can the absence of one player be the reason for a drop of 16 positions down the table? Probably not. The whole dynamic of the team needs to be assessed to make such claims.

Jamie Vardy made a name for himself last season as a prolific goal scorer by winning the Premier League Player of the Season, a remarkable achievement. He holds the record for scoring in the most consecutive premier league matches (11). However, he’s been off-target this season, only scoring five goals in twenty games. The Swansea City fans were eager to point this out last weekend — “F*** off Jamie Vardy, you’ve had your f****** party, you’re going down down down”.

Similarly, Riyad Mahrez hasn’t continued with last season’s brilliance. He was arguably the most important player for Leicester last year, his skill and influences in big games were phenomenal. Barcelona legend Xavi claimed that Mahrez was “good enough” to play for the Spanish giants and that they should have signed him. Although, like Vardy, he’s performed below par this campaign, showing signs of laziness.

Vardy’s and Mahrez’s inability to continue their superb form for this campaign could be a reason why Leicester haven’t maintained their dominance, especially in an attacking sense. Key players should be able to perform consistently, but at the moment, the pair look like one-trick ponies.

We spoke to some die hard Leicester City supporters about the current situation and why they think they’re in such a mess. Thomas Miles said that there has been a “complete loss of life” at the club. Mr Miles also claimed that “other teams know how to play against us this season, we’ve become flat and predictable”.

Gary Neville recently blamed Leicester’s downfall on their defensive issues. He said that the mistakes the players have been making are “nothing to do with coaching”, and just down to “a lack of common sense”. Neville also made the statement that each player should seriously take a look at “their own individual levels of performance”, and in spite of what’s happened to them, it’s hard to disagree with this.

It hasn’t been a complete horror show for the club, they’ve made it to the last 16 of the Champions League, so something has gone right for them. It’s just in the Premier League that they’ve been really struggling.

There are a variety of reasons why this has been a poor season for Leicester. With all facts considered, the deterioration can be put down to the combination of losing key players, key players not performing well enough and a lack of hunger.

It would be remarkable if Leicester were relegated this season, especially if they were to go on and win the Champions League — they’ve already proved that anything’s possible. Imagine that, the Champions of Europe regularly playing against teams like Nottingham Forrest and Brentford.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The rise of menswear

Written by Sarah Kilcourse on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

As with most things created in the human history of ever, fashion started for men. Heels would be a prime example of a trend that men began and women merely imitated; however, in today’s modern world fashion has long been considered a female territory. But a little gap in the fashion framework is just beginning to open.

This is largely thanks to one of Manchester’s most famous associates (don’t fret I know he isn’t actually Manc), Mr David Beckham. Although it was many moons ago that we took delight in his meterosexual stylings he very publicly made it acceptable for men to take pride in their appearance. From his dabbling in frosted tips, to his underwear campaigns, David Beckham is the face that relaunched men’s style.

In more recent years the London’s Men’s Collection’s has become a growing event in the fashion calendar, famous face like our reverend Mr Beckham, along with Tinie Tempah, Oliver Cheshire, David Gandy or Nick Grimshaw have made fashion cool. They have showcased that men’s style can vary greatly from a simple jeans and shirt combo. And oh how the fashion industry has rallied to cry of men seeking new looks.

Many of the old powerhouses of fashion have long shown menswear collections: Gucci, Burberry, Armani and Ralph Lauren; however, new up-and-coming brands are finding a space for themselves in the market: Sibling, House of Holland and Vetements all create overtly ‘fashion’ pieces. There are seemingly no rules to mens fashion anymore — just think of Rick Owens AW15 collection, seemingly a swing of the schlong is an acceptable fashion statement post-Beckham.

As the men’s fashion show’s become a bigger event, even merging in with womenswear collection (but that is an entirely different conversation) designers are looking to models to be the face of their collections. So, the ever increasing menswear industry is creating supermodels of its own, models no longer limited to spreading their legs in an underwear billboard. The ‘it’ male model of the moment is Lucky Blue Smith, he walked pretty much every major catwalk and became a member of Olivier Rousteing’s infamous Balmain army, and he is set to be the tip of the male model iceberg.

All in all the growing menswear collection can only be seen positively, mainly because it means it is becoming less and less acceptable to see men in fleeces, which frankly can only be a blessing from the fashion gods.

Department of Health to remove NHS staff safety body

Written by tabitha hanks on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

NHS Protect will be ending its security management operations in hospitals by April this year, under order of the Department of Health, according to a recent report from the BBC.

The body currently works by advising hospitals on improving staff safety and educating staff on how to avoid, handle and report incidents of physical assault, violence and aggression in clinical settings. It is yet to be decided whether the body will be reassigned to a different department, and which department will shoulder the responsibility.

NHS Protect was established in 2003 to reduce crime across NHS front-line services. One of its priorities was to enforce the NHS’ zero tolerance policy on violence towards healthcare workers.

Amongst its five strategic aims is “establish[ing] a safe and secure environment [to] protect NHS staff from violence, harassment and abuse”. Since it was introduced, NHS Protect has shown a “significant increase” in prosecution of offenders, with up to 98 per cent of annual physical assaults on A&E staff resulted in the arrest of the offending party.

However, figures published by NHS Protect show annual assaults on staff rose by 18 per cent between 2011 and 2015, with the total number reaching 70,555, highlighting staff safety as a continually serious issue.

Healthcare workers in the NHS are up to four times more likely to experience physical assault in their professional environment than other workers.

A first year medical student at the University of Manchester, who wished to remain anonymous, has said he “feel[s] worried as removing this [body] will only increase the number of incidences and puts me as well as other future doctors more at risk.”

He further expressed concerns that such measures could result in a “drop in patient care due to medical staff not knowing what to do in such situations”.

The Government’s Health Service Circular in 2001 noted that in certain circumstances it is appropriate, and safer, to withhold treatment from aggressive or violent individuals in order to ensure the safety of staff and other patients.

The majority of patient assaults are related to medical reasons, so a lack of suitable training amongst staff to handle such cases may lead to negligence of patients with violent or aggressive tendencies due to mental illness.

The decision to transfer the responsibility for the security of staff comes at a time when the NHS is under the severest strain it has ever seen. Accident & Emergency waiting times in recent months have been at their highest since 2004, when the Labour Government introduced the target of a 4-hour maximum wait time for patients to be seen by a doctor.

A Department of Health associated publication on reducing violence in A&E units linked longer waiting times with patient and relative aggression; with a consistent and growing failure to meet waiting time targets, it is more likely that violence and threats towards staff will rise.

Such working conditions could see a further shortage of trained staff as well as a decline in applications for healthcare training courses across England. Currently nursing vacancies exceed 24,000 and only 50 per cent of those completing medicine degrees in UK universities continue their specialist studies here.

Since the Brexit referendum applications for NHS jobs from the EU have declined enormously, with nursing alone seeing a decline of 90 per cent in EU workers registering.

Staff shortages could rise significantly in the coming years, especially without a defined body to ensure staff safety and prevent assaults on front-line workers.

Finding the public’s lost faith in science

Written by Aliya Ismangil on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

In the famous words of Michael Gove, the public has “had enough of experts.” A similar sentiment has been attributed to the untrustworthiness of science perpetuated through Trump’s dismissal of climate change.

In a recent Times Higher Education article, five academics recently discussed ways that scientists could bridge the communication gap between research community and the public. Many disagree that this loss of trust is actually the case. An Ipsos MORI study published at the end of 2016 revealed that 80 per cent of respondents say they would trust what a scientist says.

Dr. David Kirby, a program director for the University of Manchester’s MSc Science Communication, also emphasises that “science is still considered very trustworthy by people as a whole…it’s just when people point to specific cases, their own opinion outweigh any evidence that they see in front of their face”.

He uses the example of vaccines and autism: “The evidence is overwhelming that there is no link between those two. People trust science in many other ways but on this particular issue, they’re not willing to trust scientists because they think there are pharmaceutical conspiracies and they need an explanation.”

Another 2014 Ipsos MORI survey showed that 68 per cent of respondents agree that scientists should take more time to discuss the social and ethical implications of their work to the general public. Nicholas Russell, of Imperial College London, talks about how expertise and hard facts and no longer enough to convince the public, referring to a study by Friederike Hendriks, a psychologist at the University of Münster in Germany, he expresses that the public must also believe that scientists and experts are also honest and ethical.

Dr. Kirby also shares this sentiment, stating that “the problem with scientists is that we always think in terms of facts and rationality, well of course if you see the evidence, you’re going to believe it. But, as scientists, we should know that human nature doesn’t always work that way. We need to convince the public, not just that what we’re saying is right, but why they should want to think that what we’re saying is right.”

Russell proposes that portraying science in fiction is one way to do so. Explaining how fiction is by far more popular than biographies, and so could be used to highlight the issues that scientists face, prompting thought into what can be done within the science community to correct this.

Amitava Banerjee, honorary consultant cardiologist at the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, believes that open discussion is the way to communicate science’s use to the public.

She reflects on her experience at a Denmark viva voce event, which was open to the public, allowing questions and discussion with non-scientists and scientists alike. Banerjee highlights that ‘open science’ does not just relate to its methods and data but “also requires open discussion of the ways in which data are used, interpreted and ultimately translated for use in society.”

Julio Gimenez, head of the Westminster Professional Language Centre, Guy Waddell and Doug Specht of the University of Westminster, also echo this, believing that the closed nature of journals and scientific reports exclusive to academics and institutes mean that scientists are missing out on opportunities for communication and discussion with the public.

“I think what’s important when we think about science communication is that we don’t want to think of it as an alternative means to educate the public,” says Dr. Kirby.

“It’s more about sharing to people what science can do for them, what science has done for them.”

Mobile app officially approved as form of contraception

Written by Serena Holloway on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

A mobile fertility app has been granted medical approval to be used as female contraception within the European Union.

The Natural Cycles app, which costs £60 a year, calculates which days the user is and isn’t fertile, based on daily body temperature measurements that must be entered into the app.

Using this information, Natural Cycles indicates ‘red’ and ‘green’ days throughout the month. Women can use this fertility information as either a contraceptive or for planning a pregnancy; if being used as a contraceptive, users can have sex on green days only.

Designed by Nobel Prize winning physicist Elina Bergund and her husband Dr Raoul Scherwitzl, the app was tested in over 4,000 Swedish women aged 20-35 and surprisingly found that it was just as effective as the contraceptive pill.

Despite being used by over 3 million women within the UK, the pill has consistently been linked to depression, severe mood swings, weight gain and a multitude of other negative side effects – many of which are caused by hormones present in the pill.

In contrast, Natural Cycles is hormone-free, providing a more natural alternative with less negative side effects. The scientific premise behind the app is fairly simple — after ovulation, the hormone progesterone is naturally released in our bodies, and warms our bodies up by around 0.45 C. Therefore, by tracking a woman’s daily body temperatures, Natural Cycles is able to predict when she is ovulating.

But can it be trusted to prevent pregnancy? Chair of the British Fertility Society, Dr Adam Balen, suggests that women should be wary of expecting complete protection from the app, saying “any device that monitors the menstrual cycle is fallible as women do not always ovulate predictably every month.”

22-year-old University of Manchester student, Hollie, agrees and said: “I would not trust it. There is no way I could have peace of mind leaving my fertility down to an app. The pill gives me much more peace of mind and I know I can relax.”

Fellow student Mel agrees, saying that “if I knew it was just as accurate as the pill, then I would definitely prefer using the app. It would feel so much more natural.”

Gary Neville plans to open a university

Written by Georgie Hines on . Posted in News, Sport.

Gary Neville, and other teammates from Manchester United’s ‘Class of ’92,’ are looking to open a university in the Greater Manchester area.

Reports suggest they have been looking at possible sites in Stretford, Trafford – most likely on Chester Road.

In collaboration with Lancaster University, the former footballer’s new university hopes to specialise in sport studies, but will also offer courses including media, physiology, and sports management.

Although the name of the university is yet to be decided, sources have revealed it could be University Academy ’92, which can be shortened to UA92.

The name is thought to be in tribute to the winning Manchester United team that won the FA Youth Cup in 1992.

The new university will include a new build, and halls of residence that could cater for up to 5,000 students.

A Lancaster University spokesperson has said: “We can confirm that we are discussing this project with Gary Neville, but we are still evaluating its feasibility and no decision has yet been made to proceed or otherwise.”

Neville has also not given much away regarding the endeavour, previously saying, “I have been working on an exciting educational project but by no means is it ready to speak about in detail.”

These university plans are just a small part of Neville’s bigger plan for the redevelopment of Manchester. His St. Michael’s project, with business partner Ryan Giggs, includes two skyscrapers in the city centre.

A planning application for the scheme has revealed the plans, which include a hotel, skybars, an apartment complex, a synagogue, offices, and several bars and restaurants.

However, the redevelopment has been met with criticism from Historic England, who believe the project will cause “irreparable damage” to the “precious heritage of the city”.

Catherine Dewar, the North West planning director of Historic England, has said: “It would have an impact on people’s appreciation and experience of the stunning town hall and library but it would also erase different layers of this area’s history, irreparably damaging the special character of the surrounding conservation area.

“A dynamic city like ours needs to fully embrace development but this scheme is not good enough to justify the damage it would cause to the streets around the site and to the setting of the city’s most important buildings and spaces.”

Expressing how “deeply concerned” she was about the change to the city, she added that the change or loss of buildings, which include The Sir Ralph Abercromby pub, Bootle Street’s former police station, and Manchester Stock Exchange, “that have soul and tell important stories about our city’s past,” would be devastating.

Speaking on the matter, Neville has said the redevelopment will be “one of the biggest statements in architecture in modern times in Manchester” and would create 1,000 jobs in the area.

Roof collapses at Manchester’s Factory nightclub

Written by Ollie Potter on . Posted in News.

The popular Factory nightclub gave clubbers what must be one of the most unique nights out of their lives, when the ceiling of the first floor collapsed in the early hours of Sunday the 12th of February.

Clubbers were filmed holding up the remains of the ceiling following the bizarre incident, and it was reported by some eyewitnesses that people had glass and dust in their eyes.

Situated on the corner of Princess Street and Charles Street, the club also experienced building collapse in 2014 when 850 people were evacuated from the establishment, whilst seven people were injured.

George, who was attending the club during the incident, said “”I was getting a drink and all of a sudden I see half of the ceiling fall, and some of the students holding it up”. He then added that, in true clubber fashion, “We then began chanting Don’t Take Me Home until everyone got kicked out of the club”.

Tom Foster, speaking to The Manchester Evening News, said “It took about two minutes for the DJ to stop, then bouncers rushed in. But there was no plan. I was surprised there was no announcement.” Foster, a third year University of Salford student, speaking to The Tab, added that “it was definitely the strangest experience I’ve had on a night out.”

People took to Twitter to express light-hearted comments about the night and to recount their experiences.

Factory’s Twitter account advertised their Monday ‘Quids In’ Night with a video from The US Office of Steve Carell literally trying to raise the roof. Potential clubbers may be discouraged however, following Saturday’s surreal events.

A Factory spokesman said: “A section of plasterboard came loose from the first floor”, which had also collapsed two years ago, before adding “no one was hurt and the club was evacuated purely as a precaution. This issue relates to the first floor only, and the ground and second floors will open as normal on Monday”.

Travelling solo

Written by Sophie Manley on . Posted in Lifestyle.

Travelling on your own can be a daunting and an even seemingly impossible prospect. Glorified blogs and epic Instagram accounts make it seem like only the most accomplished travellers dare to wander the world independently, risking their lives every day and partying with new people every night. These travellers usually have expensive GoPros and movie editing software, endless streams of money and an innate ability to talk to anyone.

However, from my own experience, I can tell you that it’s not as glamorous and scary as it seems. The trick to travelling is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. There are lots of ways to ease yourself into life on the road that will make you answer the question, “How did you find travelling on your own?” with a confident “I was never on my own” when you get home from your adventure, full of pride and amazing memories.

Now you’re all inspired to organise your first solo journey, I’ll give you a few tips on how to get going. There are several ways to start your travels, but the main ways are working, volunteering, or backpacking.

Working: Is cash a problem? Work your way around the world and you’ll never have to stop travelling. The beauty of being prepared to work is that you can keep going for as long as you like; whenever you’re close to running out of money, get a job wherever you are at the time. Working holiday visas for 18-30 year olds are pretty easy to get for Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Buy yourself a visa, book a week in a popular hostel in a city of your choice, catch a flight, and get job searching once you’re out there. My first job in Sydney was door-to-door sales. I quit after a week, but I ended up moving in with the people I met on the job and we became really great friends. Alternatively, you could get a seasonal job. During summer, you could work in a bar/restaurant in a party town around Europe; to do this, you’ll either need to go through an agency online, or just rock up and start handing out CVs.

Volunteering: If there’s something more specific you want to do, maybe this is the way forward. The International Citizen Service is a great place to start if you want to make a difference in a small community by working on a project. The great thing about ICS is that all you have to do is fundraise £800, and all other costs are paid for. Something I’m desperate to do once I’ve finished university is to volunteer at a yoga and surf retreat. These are found all over the world (I want to go to Sri Lanka!), and usually say if you work in a cafe/restaurant for free, then you have access to surf equipment and yoga classes at their facility. If you want to volunteer while on the move, you can work for bed and board. This includes WWOOFing, (a popular option in Australia) or working in a hostel in return for free accommodation.

Backpacking: There are so many organised tours out there, visit STA or look on Google to find some of the most popular tours for solo travellers. These are great for the first couple of weeks as they give you a good feel for a new country, whilst keeping you totally safe. Downside is these are a little more expensive. If you don’t fancy a tour, just rock up to a new place having pre-booked a popular, suitable hostel and researched a bit about the area and what you want to do there, and start making friends! People are much friendlier in hostels than they are anywhere else in the world — I promise. If you’re more organised, then plan your journey and your accommodation in advance. If you’re more spontaneous and get a thrill from last minute decisions and not knowing where you’re going to end up, then just book the first few days and see where life takes you.

So hopefully you now feel equipped with a wealth of knowledge about how to plan and implement your solo travels. Good luck! Find yourself, lose yourself, take lots of selfies — don’t be scared to ask strangers to take your picture — and take care.

Proofreading companies: right words, wrong idea

Written by Elliott Mills on . Posted in Opinion.

Do you ever get tired of having to use certain words in your essays that create sentences which are grammatically correct and work together to build up a paragraph where, hopefully, each sentence makes sense and relates to its neighbour sentence in a harmonious way? I find this task of organising clear and logically constructed clauses really rather arduous.

If you have frequented the library recently, you’ll have noticed that a proofreading company is here to help, announcing itself onto the scene by means of flyers proliferating eerily here and there. I look to the left and see two flyers entitled ‘Wordsmiths: Experience You Need. Results You Want’. I look to the right: ‘Wordsmiths’. I look back to the left and there are now three flyers despite no one else being in at this time.

I begin to consider whether the overly sombre night-shift library staff member is in on the game, as he paces the perimeter in his characteristic slow, measured severity. I fear that talking to him would be to break some essential rule of courtesy, like waking up a sleep-walker or interrupting an ancient religious ritual.

Looking back down at all these words I am trying to jam into sentences like a square peg through a square hole that is too small, I feel compelled to find out more about the ones they call the Wordsmiths.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find that nothing screams ‘this is not dodgy at all and you shouldn’t feel ashamed about using this service’ quite like the proviso ‘100 per cent Confidentiality’. It is a badge of consummate honour and can be found elsewhere — most notably in the payment conditions of online porn subscriptions. And people say I don’t do any research before writing these articles…

Well, the Wordsmiths proof-readers urgently promise 100 per cent confidentiality, in a sales technique reminiscent of someone who once approached me saying “do you want to buy this bike?” before almost instantly qualifying his question by assuring me: “I haven’t stolen it.” I saw this Wordsmiths flyer as I then saw that attempted bike flogging: with doubt as to the product but with sure knowledge that I would write about the situation sooner or later.

It should be said that any editing service is primarily aimed to help those for whom English is not a first language. And anyway, how different is sending your essays to professional editors from simply having a friend or family member read through your work?

For my part, I don’t tend to have others read through my essays, but these Mancunion articles go through an editing process. This is a case where there are benefits from an outside perspective looking over my writing, as I derive great pleasure from the inventive experimentation which goes into the spelling of my name. The unceasing creativity of the editing team has yielded some absolute gems, and I do hope for the much sought after T. S. Eliot variation this week. (My own version shares the stage with the likes of Missy Elliott and those portaloos you see on building sites, the latter providing evidence that almost all Elliotts lead to the waste land.)

The Wordsmiths flyers on my left, which now have amassed in their hundreds, tell me that the cheapest of their services is the proofreading package at a tenner per thousand words. I have yet to enquire whether it would be possible to offer them a sole penny for one word you are having particular difficulty in spelling.

This service, it says, acts as “your second pair of eyes.” Above this description is a picture of someone doing some proofreading while wearing glasses, thus generously doubling up on the company’s initial claim.

Proofreading is a fairly unobtrusive process, but it is the more expensive services which may offer cause for concern, such as a paraphrasing service at £45 per thousand words for those who “have the right ideas but have trouble finding the right words.”

That people might pay this much for their essay to be rewritten further illustrates the trend of money pervading all areas of higher education. Your assignments can now be seen as monetary investments, rather than intellectual investments, where you will see a return in the earning of a job that has been rewarded on the basis of your degree. All the things which we are encouraged to tell employers about studying an essay subject — those skills of argument, analysis and communication — won’t actually have been accrued if people choose to have professionals do it all for them.

With four years of essay-writing under my belt, and with the knowledge that the skills of writing essays are now dying out, I think I’d better give Wordsmiths a call and ask for a job, offering them a CV of attributes that their own organisation has now proved obsolete.

Applications from EU graduates to UK jobs decline by 18%

Written by Shivani Kaura on . Posted in News.

The effects of Brexit on UK businesses are already becoming apparent, after research done by LinkedIn revealed that the number of EU graduates looking for jobs in the UK fell by 18 per cent between May and July 2016.

The same report, based on data from three million people, also showed that 14 per cent of all job searches are UK graduates seeking work abroad.

Josh Graff, President of LinkedIn, speaking to The Australian Business Review, stated that “this should be a warning to British businesses that face not only a critical skills gap but also what I would call an interest gap. Domestic and international talent is starting to look outside the UK for job opportunities.

“Whilst there remains a great deal of uncertainty about what Brexit means for UK businesses, our findings make one thing clear. If British business leaders don’t act now to shore up their talent pipelines for a post-Brexit age, they risk facing interest and skills gaps in the future.

“It’s therefore vital that businesses work closely with the Government to ensure that Brexit negotiations prioritise businesses’ access to top talent from across the globe,” he added.

Separate research released by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and The Adecco Group has shown that, as reported in The Independent, specific sectors in UK businesses dedicated to EU graduates are already experiencing a shortage in labour.

The CIPD report, based on the accounts of 1,000 EU employers in the UK, has revealed that many workers want to leave their jobs this year and have considered moving out of the country.

Gerwyn Davies, labour market adviser for the CIPD, has proposed that if job positions are unfilled it could “act as a brake on output growth in the UK in the years ahead”.

Chief executive at The Adecco Group UK John Marshall said that the after-effects of the historic Brexit vote are starting to make an impact on the UK jobs market.

Marshall said: “Whilst the outcome of Brexit negotiations is still uncertain, employers’ access to EU migrant workers is likely to change. Investing in young people is a solid long-term strategy, but employers also need to face the facts and prepare for a situation where they might lose access to significant numbers of skilled EU workers in the near future.

“It is encouraging that some employers are beginning to look to new solutions for their future workforce with investment in retraining and apprenticeships, but many more need to begin this planning and investment in their workforce,” he said.

Say hello to Fuse Food

Written by Miriam Mizzi on . Posted in News.

Sophia, a Drama and Screen Studies student, recently decided that the University of Manchester’s large international make-up was a culinary opportunity just waiting to be explored. This, after some serious brainstorming, led to the idea of Fuse Food.

Fuse Food is a new show coming to Fuse TV which will have student chefs cook simple, healthy and tasty dishes to inspire other students to save pennies and get back in the kitchen. The show is looking to encourage students to be inspired by different foods and diets and ultimately open students’ minds up to healthier dinner options.

Fuse Food will enjoy a different chef each week that are experts in a particular cuisine. This is where Sophia saw the chance to celebrate Manchester’s enormous international student body. Sophia felt that it would be a wonderful opportunity to have students from all over the globe cook a delicious and healthy meal that they can share with other students.

The idea is to not only include different cultures and cuisines, but give all students a new insight into cooking and encourage them to try some fantastic recipes that they might otherwise not have tried or have deemed too complicated.

The show will include a variety of different cuisines, including Spanish, Indian and Caribbean. However, there will also be a focus on different diets, to suit any taste. Many dishes will be vegetarian and a whole episode is dedicated to veganism.

Another factor Fuse Food looks into is nutritional eating for physical and mental health, to boost students in the more stressful parts of the semester. The first episode is Vegetarian, and our student chef will be making a potato and onion frittata.

The first episode is available now through Fuse TV’s Youtube channel.